For most products which are to be handled and/or carried by consumers, the consumer typically prefers lighter weight products while not wanting to lose any product quality or durability. Lighter weight products, in addition to being more desirable for consumers, are often also preferred by manufactures in order to reduce shipping and handling costs. Essentially everything from raw materials and parts to finished products need to be shipped from their point of origin to the consumer.
Energy is required to move an object, whether that object is in a gravitational field or not. In a gravitational field an object has weight, and outside a gravitational field an object has mass. It takes fuel to move an object from a point A to a point B. Energy is required to accelerate the object to get it moving, and also to sustain the speed of movement according to the relationship mass times velocity squared. The energy needed to move an object may be expressed in terms of watts, where a watt is the ability to lift one kg one meter in one second against the force of gravity.
It also takes energy to hold an object against the force of gravity. Fuel is required to supply the energy. For vehicles, such as ships and trains, the fuel is typically a hydrocarbon mixture. For a human being or other animal, the fuel is glucose, and for a rocket, the fuel is often liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. The heavier the object the more fuel it takes to move the object. In addition, for the human body, the necessity of carrying around heavier objects may lead to added soreness in the shoulders and spine. Thus, there is a need for lighter weight objects that are essentially as strong and durable as the heavier objects that are being replaced.
Other issues may also arise from the selection of the types of materials used for product production. Electronic products are constantly being improved and upgraded, and environmental impacts can result from the large volumes of consumer electronic products that enter into and phase out of the market each year. Certain materials used to produce products for consumers and industries require manufacturing processes that are energy intensive and generate large amounts of greenhouse gas and environmental waste. In addition, many waste products end up in landfills, and the materials may persist in the environment for thousands of years.
Therefore, there is an increased need for ultra-lightweight materials that are not energy intensive to produce, and which are easy to recycle and preferably biodegradable, but significant technological needs remain unmet. New lightweight and ultra-lightweight materials are needed that are durable (i.e. impact-, crack-, rupture-, fatigue-, and corrosion-resistant), formable, transparent, non-toxic, inexpensive to fabricate, manufactured using low environment impact processes, and biodegradable. For certain applications, improved thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, and optical transparency may also be relevant. Materials having reduced density/weight would be useful for applications in space, aerospace, vehicles, industrial products, consumer products, and everyday life in the human world.